Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 18, 2026

Realistic Membrane Modeling Using Complex Lipid Mixtures in Simulation Studies
Published on: September 1, 2023
Models of membrane electrostatics
1Biophysics Group, Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA. cahill@unm.edu
Abstract:
Formulas are derived for the electrostatic potential of a charge in or near a membrane modeled as one or more dielectric slabs lying between two semi-infinite dielectrics. One can use these formulas in Monte Carlo codes to compute the distribution of ions near cell membranes more accurately than by using Poisson-Boltzmann theory or its linearized version. Here I use them to discuss the electric field of a uniformly charged membrane, the image charges of an ion, the distribution of salt ions near a charged membrane, the energy of a zwitterion near a lipid slab, and the effect of including the phosphate head groups as thin layers of high electric permittivity.
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